Published: Thursday, June 27, 2013 at 08:52 AM.

Last winter, Southwest ran five daily flights out of ECP.

“It shows we’re truly a seasonal market and that’s the angle of adjustment that we’re going to get,” said McClellan, who noted that Southwest becomes a smaller airline overall in the fall and winter
mont
hs by dropping about 300 flights a day. “It’s not just
Panama
City
that they’re picking on, it’s system-wide that they make adjustments based on seasonal traffic.”

On a positive note, McClellan reported a 1.7 percent increase in general aviation for the
mont
h.

“As you can see in operations, that’s the one positive number,” he said.

WESTBAY — Officials at NorthwestFloridaBeachesInternationalAirport reported yet another decline in passenger traffic at a meeting Wednesday.

Passenger traffic declined 1.5 percent for the month of May, marking the ninth straight month of passenger decreases for the airport and pushing the total decline for the year to 6.8 percent.

Airport executive director Parker McClellan said the declines can be traced to a reduction in the Southwest Airlines flight schedule this year.

“It’s the new benchmark,” he said.

Last summer, Southwest ran eight daily flights and added an additional “test flight” to St. Louis from June to August. The airline has since adjusted its “busy season” schedule and is now running only seven daily flights out of ECP.

For the month, both major airlines Southwest and Delta operated at 80 percent capacity. Year to date, Delta’s load factor is 78 percent, with 70 percent for Southwest.

McClellan also announced Southwest’s upcoming winter schedule, which features yet another reduction in flights, dropping the number of daily flights to three for the months of January and February.

Last winter, Southwest ran five daily flights out of ECP.

“It shows we’re truly a seasonal market and that’s the angle of adjustment that we’re going to get,” said McClellan, who noted that Southwest becomes a smaller airline overall in the fall and winter months by dropping about 300 flights a day. “It’s not just Panama City that they’re picking on, it’s system-wide that they make adjustments based on seasonal traffic.”

On a positive note, McClellan reported a 1.7 percent increase in general aviation for the month.

“As you can see in operations, that’s the one positive number,” he said.

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